Govt asked to set benchmark of teachers’ quota: teachers union

The Indonesian Teachers Association (PGRI) urged the government to set a quota for teachers throughout the country to be used as a reference for any schools hoping to hire new teaching staff.

PGRI chief Sulistyo said that according to the government’s records, Indonesia has one teacher for every 18 students. Although the ratio seemed good, it was not practically realistic and did not fulfill the children's learning curves, he said.

“The government should figure out the ideal number of teachers in Indonesia for our students,” Sulistyo said as quoted by tribunnews.com.

He added that the calculation should be based on the number of classes at a national level. For elementary schools, he said, at least one teacher was needed for every class, plus one physical education teacher, one religious education teacher and one art teacher.

The same goes for junior and senior high schools, but they would also need to take study fields into account. This way, it would be easy to work out the ideal number of teachers at a district, city and national levels, he said.